Stamps Scholars Enrichment Funds

If you have been awarded a Stamps Scholarship by UConn, you have access to up to $12,000 in funds that may be used for enrichment activities.

Enrichment activities demand sustained engagement with a topic or interest beyond what is required for any course or degree program.  In other words, activities that are required for one’s degree program (e.g., senior design projects in the School of Engineering; senior projects in the School of Fine Arts; group projects in School of Business courses; etc.) do not meet the definition of “enrichment activities” and are thus not eligible for these funds.

Eligible Expenses

The following activities are eligible to be funded by the Stamps Scholars Enrichment fund:

  • Study Abroad You may use the Enrichment Award funds for travel and room and board, but not for tuition or program fees. Experiential Global Learning (EGL) provides estimates that break down the costs of travel, room, and board, which you can use when creating your budget.
  • Professional Development You may use award funds to conduct fieldwork, travel for research purposes, or to attend pre-professional or academic conferences.  Pre-professional, professional, and academic conferences are the most common professional development activities supported by these funds.
  • Community Service You may use the award to cover costs associated with volunteer or community service activities. These are usually immersive in nature, which includes most service-orientated alternative spring break programs but does not generally cover volunteer work associated with local after school programs (unless those activities are directly related to your degree program or professional aspirations).
  • Research You may use award funds to cover some expenses associated with a research project, including:
      • Supplies consumed during the project (e.g. cells, chemicals, computer time, etc.).
      • Travel to and from the lab or project location.
      • Room and board (for projects away from home).
    • You may not use your award for the following:
      • Durable goods that will continue to exist after the project (e.g. computers or other lab equipment).
      • A project that is required by your major (e.g., senior project for BFA students, design lab for engineering students).
      • A project that is being funded by any other source (e.g., SURF, IDEA, BOLD, Holster, Beckman, etc.). Requests to use enrichment funds to cover project-related expenses that exceed the budget(s) of the other source(s) will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
  • Unpaid Internship You may use award funds to cover room and board (away from home or school) and other expenses (travel to and from your work location, for example) incurred during the internship. You may also use the enrichment award for room and board for a low paying internship, but only if the expenses exceed the total amount of the salary.

Ineligible Expenses

The following costs are not eligible to be funded through the Stamps Scholars Enrichment fund:

  • UConn fee bill balances, including tuition, fees, parking tickets, pharmacy charges, etc., or other items such as course textbooks, computers/tablets, lab fees, program costs and course materials.
  • Activities that start after you have graduated, even if you incur expenses related to this activity before your degree is conferred.
  • Activities associated with classes for which you are receiving academic credit and which are requirements for your degree (e.g., costs associated with senior design projects in the School of Engineering).
  • Test Fees or other costs associated with preparation for tests are not allowed if the exams are required for graduate or professional school admission or professional licensure (e.g., MCAT, LSAT, GRE, and actuarial exams).
  • Tuition or other program fees that approximate tuition at other educational institutions or agencies. Exceptions: You may request funding to offset costs of Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) certification programs if they do not carry academic credit (from UConn or another institution). Please note that these exceptions may be rescinded in the future.
  • Publishing Fees charged by some journals.
  • Compensation in the form of salary, wages, or stipends.

Application Process

Please submit this online Stamps Enrichment Application at least three weeks prior to your activity.

We recommend you assemble the following materials before you start work on the form:

  1. Verification that you will be engaging in the activity. This could be a letter of acceptance to a study abroad, volunteer or service program, a letter of offer for an internship, a letter from a research mentor, or conference registration confirmation.
  2. Documentation that clearly indicates the costs associated with the activity. These could be fee estimates for your study abroad program, paid registration receipt for a conference, airfare receipts or screenshots of estimates, calculations for meals (per diem/per day) and/or mileage rates (current rates for food/per diem and mileage are available on the left side of travel.uconn.edu). Screenshots saved as PDFs will serve this purpose.
  3. Budget The next step is to complete the budget worksheet in which you list all the costs associated with your activity. If your activity involves travel (not study abroad), we recommend that you complete the travel worksheet, which will calculate the travel expenses that you can enter into the Budget Worksheet.

Once you have assembled your application materials, then you are ready to complete the application. Please do so at least three weeks before your activity begins (you cannot request funds retroactively for an activity nor for activities that take place after graduation).

Special considerations

For group activities: Please note that enrichment award funds support Stamps Scholars who are pursuing eligible enrichment activities.  We cannot approve requests to use funds from this program to subsidize activities of individuals who are not Stamps Scholars.  So, if your award includes funds for travel, and you plan to share a room, we can only approve requests for your portion of the room cost.  The same holds true for meals and transportation.

For international travel: 
Your safety is important to us. We will deny requests for countries with a Level 3 or 4 Travel Advisory in force, and reserve the right to deny requests for countries with a public announcement in force. We will not approve requests to travel to destinations in which UConn’s Office of Experiential Global Learning has suspended or ended its programming for safety reasons. Please review State Department current travel advisories prior to submitting your application. If an application has been approved, and a subsequent Travel Advisory or public announcement has been issued for the country(ies) to which you are traveling, we reserve the right to cancel and request a return of awarded funds.

For taxes: Your grant may be considered taxable income. Please consult your tax professional to determine whether the payment of this grant is a taxable event. Additional details, and answers to many frequently asked Student Tax Questions and Non-Resident Tax Questions.

After Completion of Activity

Within two weeks of the completion of your activity, please submit a reflection form. If you have Stamps Enrichment funds remaining, you will not be able to access them if you have not submitted a reflection for your previous activities.

Current Scholars, if you have questions about this process or want to discuss options or review your plan, please contact kaitlin.heenehan@uconn.edu (UConn Stamps Scholars Program Lead).